More Japanese people in their 40s used the internet than watched TV last year, a first for this age group, according to a government survey.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry's Institute for Information and Communications Policy has surveyed the public's use of media since 2012, in cooperation with the University of Tokyo. The latest survey was conducted in November last year on 1,500 people aged from 13 to 69. Questions including how long they used various forms of media.
Among respondents in their 40s, 83.5 percent said they used the internet on work or school days, up 5.1 percentage points from a year earlier. This exceeded the percentage who said they watched TV -- 83 percent, down 3.4 percentage points -- for the first time.
On their days off, 84.4 percent of respondents in their 40s used the internet, up 3.6 percentage points, while 83.8 percent watched television, down 2.5 percentage points.
Among respondents from teens to those in their 30s, the proportion of people who used the internet exceeded those who watched television by at least 10 percentage points on any day. Among respondents in their 50s to 60s, more people watched television than used the internet.
The survey showed respondents used the internet for an average of 100.4 minutes on work or school days, exceeding 100 minutes for the first time. The longest amount of that time was devoted to emails.
When asked about which media they trusted, 68.7 percent supported newspapers, followed by TV at 63.6 percent, the internet at 30.8 percent, and magazines at 19.1 percent.
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